


The Codicil

by FortyninePalm



Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015), Swordspoint Series - Ellen Kushner
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:07:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22959895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FortyninePalm/pseuds/FortyninePalm
Summary: The Abrasax siblings discuss an unexpected codicil to their late mother’s will, and lady’s maid Jupiter goes to sell something that belongs to her.Sprinting through a couple scenes from the first half of the first act of the movie to see whether the story works in the Riverside setting.
Kudos: 2





	The Codicil

“I did not expect to see you here, Titus.”

“Indeed,” he replied. His fine, cream-colored doublet did look out of place in the grime of the warehouse, and he brushed at it unconsciously. “I just wanted to see you, dear sister. We must attempt to hold our family together, now that mother is gone.”

Around them workers heaved crates and bales, carrying some out toward the docks, others deeper into the warehouse. They gave them a wide berth, some lowering their heads respectfully as they passed. To Kalique only, Titus noticed. 

At last, she turned to him. “Of course, brother,” she said. “And this would have nothing to do with mother’s will?”

“I cannot complain,” he answered. “Trade clearly agrees with you most of all,” he looked around and sniffed distastefully. “And, of course, the codicil is of little concern,” he added after what he judged to be a sufficiently long pause.

“Did you find a solicitor to teach you that word?” Kalique asked sweetly. Titus exhaled a single dry laugh. “Mother was taken by many strange notions toward the end,” she continued. “As you would know if you had come to see her more.”

“As you say,” Titus inclined his head. “We would have known if she had had any other children.”

———

  
The shop wasn’t quite in Riverside: it was just far enough away that merchants and the better sort of servants could walk there in safety, if not comfort — and close enough to Riverside that thieves and pickpockets could do the same. Jupiter hoped nobody mistook her for the latter. She wore one of Miss Katherine’s old dresses from several springs past, and the sky-blue fabric didn’t bring out her own dark hair as it did Katherine’s golden locks.

A bell rang as she pushed open the door. “Good afternoon, miss,” said the pallid young man behind the door, sounding like he wasn’t sure how to address her. “Looking to buy?”

“Sell, actually,” Jupiter answered with more confidence than she felt, and reached into the pocket at her hip. 

The young man shook his head quickly, and the mask of bland politeness dropped from his face. “Round back,” he told her with a jerk of his head.

Caine watched from across the road as the servant girl left the shop almost as quickly as she had entered. He had waited for her outside the Dunlevy house for the better part of the morning. He had expected her to go toward the fashionable shops of the middle city, but instead she had headed down toward the river. As the neighborhood got rougher, he started watching the street more cautiously. He was unlikely, he had been warned, to be the only swordsman given this particular commission.

Jupiter knocked on the wooden door at the back of the shop, holding up her dress to keep it from dragging in the mud. The man’s pallid face had unsettled her. It had put her in mind of a nightmare, the sight of pale faces peering through the windows of Miss Katherine’s room in the middle of the night. But of course, that was absurd. 

She was doing nothing wrong, she reminded herself. She wasn’t stealing, the silver comb in her pocket had been a gift from Miss Katherine, even if she had intended her to wear it. But when would a lady’s maid have a reason to wear a silver comb? She thought of the brass telescope in the shop window by the university, the one her mother had looked at with tears in her eyes. Perhaps, once she bought it, they could take it onto the roof of Dunlevy House on a clear night and look at the stars, the way her mother said her father had loved to do.

The man who finally opened the door was older than the one out front. His face was rougher and he was a head shorter, but he shared the young man’s pallor. He looked her up and down quickly. “Selling, are you?”

“That’s right.”

“Let’s see it then.”

Jupiter held out the comb, fingers gripping it in case he would try to snatch it away. Instead, he leaned in and looked at it closely — at the Dunlevy crest on it, she realized.

“You’re Katherine Dunlevy’s girl, aren’t you?” Jupiter hesitated, then nodded. The man stood back, then propped the door open for her. “You’d better come in, miss.”

Caine was walking fast enough not to appear to be obviously loitering, but slowly enough so he could keep the girl in view. His shoulders were stooped, his hands well away from his sword. But even out of the corner of his eye, he saw the storekeeper’s affect change as he invited the girl inside. Caine barely waited for the door to close before abandoning any pretense. He turned and ran across the road in a loping stride, head swiveling back and forth looking for threats. He silently dropped to one knee by the door, putting his ear to the crack and his hand on the well-worn hilt of his sword.

“May I see it?” the shopkeeper asked. The storeroom of the shop was windowless, lit only by lamps hanging on hooks in the laden shelves that reached up to the ceiling.

Jupiter reluctantly handed it over, and he held it up to the lamplight. “Beautiful piece,” the shopkeeper said. “The Dunlevys hitting on hard times, are they?” he asked. “Asking you to sell some family silver?”

“That’s none of your business,” Jupiter snapped, more irritated than she had meant. The door to the front of the shop opened and the pallid young man entered and carefully closed it behind him. 

“It’s mine, it was a gift, if you must know,” she added, suddenly very aware that she was alone in this enclosed space with two strange men. Her cousin knew where she was, but it would be hours before anyone would notice her missing. “How much for it?”

The young man stalked along the shelves like a feral cat on the hunt, but the older man opened his arms wide with a placating smile. The comb was still in his hands. “Chocolate, miss? It’s not what you’re used to on the Hill, I’m sure, but it’s a cold wind outside, surely you could use it.”

“No thank you,” said Jupiter warily. “How much for the comb?”

“Well I’m going to need to check some things,” the shopkeeper said. “Why don’t you wait right here, miss - Jupiter, isn’t it?”

Jupiter lunged forward for the comb, just as the young man lunged at her. The shopkeeper jerked out of reach, shocked. “Grab the bitch!” he shouted. She saw the younger man coming at her again and dodged sideways, and for a moment his hand was locked around her wrist like a manacle. She kicked, and felt his boot on the hem of her dress, her own ankle tangled in the too-long fabric, and she lost her balance and fell to the dirt floor. 

The young man’s weight was on top of her, and she felt a pit of terror open up in her stomach. She struggled, then heard a crash, didn’t realize it was the sound of the door being kicked in until the man’s weight was suddenly lifted, and there was another crash as he was thrown against the shelves.

The man who had kicked in the door was powerfully-built, his face a fighting dog’s snarl as he rounded on the shopkeeper who had charged at him from behind. 

Jupiter had seen duels on the Hill before. Most were to first blood, by hired swordsmen fighting to entertain a crowd at a garden party as much as to address any slight to their masters’ honor. Even the two that had been to the death had had an elegance to them, at least at first. This fight had none. The newcomer moved with efficient brutality, barely bothering to dodge the shopkeepers’ flailing punches before responding with his own fists and boots. 

She had rolled onto her back and pushed herself against the far wall, out of the way, knees tucked to her chest. Then another blow, and the younger man staggered back and collapsed against the shelves, opposite where the older man was already slumped, and the newcomer had a moment to catch his breath. There was a path free to the open door, and Jupiter took it, rising and sprinting out with only a sharp exhale. She made it two steps out to the street and was already picking the way back toward the Hill when she felt a hand lock on her upper arm. The newcomer had somehow caught her, and as she struggled he drew his sword — but not at her, she realized, as he kept her behind him as he turned his steel toward the door they had just come from.

**Author's Note:**

> Both Swordspoint and Jupiter Ascending feature complicated etiquette, extreme inequality, and elaborate outfits and fight scenes, so I was curious whether they go together. I love both dearly, but it’s been a while since I’ve read/seen either so some details are almost certainly off.


End file.
